The Suunto All Black Core (Military). Review and Pics..(Black Attack)

[Mystro]

Well the 2X Black Core arrived last night and I spent hours with it learning about it and running it through a lot of test. My first impressions are great. This watch was advertised as a Military Core but from my understanding dealers are calling ALL BLACK CORES military? Who knows?
The negative display is super crisp and sharp. I bumped up the contrast from the factory setting of 6 to 7 or 8. Just cause I could. It was fine from the factory but why leave well enough alone. I have other ABC Highgear watches (Altiforce with negative display and Altis SS with positive display). I am going to compare the ALL BLACK CORE to the other two. I think this is the most accurate way to see what the Core can do.

I first looked the Core over for any manufacturing defects. The bezel turns smooth and isn't lose nor is it tight. I would say the Bezel was perfect. All of the markers aligned up perfectly with the 12 o'clock face. The bezel clicks around with the sound of one of my fly fishing reels and turns both ways. Very nice!
The strap has a black buckle. Suunto calls this the all ALL BLACK CORE and I am happy to see it has a black buckle. My impressions of the watch are very cool looking and stealth. Its a looker.
The buttons are firm to push and I like the no-slip checkering engraved in them. The Negative display is sharp, perhaps sharper than the Altiforce (see pic).
The Altiforce has more of a blue cast to the display.
Either way both are excellent and I prefer the negative display in the woods. Negative displays also light up better and appear sharper with less light pollution.
Speaking of light. The Cores light is great, not too bright and not too dark. I also like that the light has its own button and extends its 5 second time if any other buttons are pushed after you activate the light. This is especially good when using the compass or navigating the watch at night in the woods. It just makes sense to have the light work this way. I also like the fact that the light blinks when the alarm goes off. A Lot of times in noisy situations (like in a club) you cant hear the alarm but can see the light flash. Brilliant!
The alarm is loud and has a quality multi chime sound to it. I am disapointed there isn't a hourly chime.
I tested the barometer with both Altiforce and Altis and all three are dead balls on with the reported barometric pressure. This was nice suprise to find that 3 wrist computers are calibrated that accurately.
The weather trend indicator was correct by showing the downward direction of both parts of the arrow. It was clear last night and started to rain early this morning.
I also tested the altimeter with the other 2 watches and my GPS and it too was dead balls on!!!
I especially like the way the Altimeter and Barometer switch to the appropriate profile in the AUTO mode. I tested to see how much movement would switch the barometer profile to the altimeter profile. I let the watch sit and go into the barometer profile. When it did, it made a nice multi chime sound. I then took the Core down one flight of stairs in my house. It didn't switch. So I started to go down my basement stairs and half way down I heard the chime indicating the profile switched back to altimeter. I tested it again and it switched the same spot. Very accurate altimeter!!
I then calibrated the compass and tested it with the other two watches. All watches were calibrated the same time. I calibrate my ABC watches by going out side on my deck railing and use a medium Gatorade bottle with the wide mouth. I sit the watch on top of the bottle with the cap on and spin the entire bottle when making the 3 rotations. It keeps the watch perfectly level and is easy to turn slowly.
Once again all three watches were dead balls on!
At this point I am more than a little impressed.
I tested the bearing tracking feature. It worked great and I am excited to try this on Saturday when I go into the woods. I can see this feature is priceless to hunters that are tracking downed game. I can speak from experience that it is very easy to lose your direction while following downed game at night in the woods.
This feature can point the way back to the car.
Over all I found the watch easy to navigate. Much like my Hi-def receiver with on screen display. You do have to push a few more buttons to get around on the watch but I can see why Suunto uses this format. Its pretty strait forward. My last test so far was to drop the watch in a glass of water for 15 min to make sure it is water tight. It passed. I do this with all my new watches. I want to find out now and not in the field if it goes down.
Software version is 1.0.3. Serial # starts with 841....etc
The watch is very comfortable to wear and is thinner than my 2 Highgear watches.
I am very impressed so far. I will keep adding to this review as I find more features to talk about.
Tonight I took the Core out in the woods bowhunting. I had a nice suprise to find the 2 markers on the top of the bezel glows very well.(see pic). I also tried the compass bearing lock. It performed flawlessly. I locked it on where the main trail starts. I then walked back into the woods to my treestand. It was dark when I got down out of my tree and the bearing lock pointed me right back to where I aimed it at. I also started a Altitude Log. I checked it out and love the real-time motion graph of my journey. (Very Cool!)

















Water Test. (Got to be hard CORE to drink this stuff.)


Luminescent Bezel marker

[Jeff_C]

Very cool indeed!

[kleptoix]

nice review! My all black has silver buckle, I like the black buckle better! Can you get a buckle somewhere?

[allen2oo3]

nice review! My all black has silver buckle, I like the black buckle better! Can you get a buckle somewhere?

ditto.

[Mystro]

I don't think Suunto just sells the buckle. I looked on Suunto site and all their straps have the silver buckle. I think the 2X black Core is so new, Suunto just started putting the flat black buckle on or maybe my All Black Core is a Military? I am looking for another strap to dress the 2xCore up when I am not in the woods. I am looking to get the black rubber elastomer strap with the silver lugs and silver buckle item # SS013338000. Does anyone know the best/cheapest place to find it? I was hoping Ebay but didn't see one there. On a side note, I tried to register on line and the All Black Core isn't listed on the register drop down list.
I called Suunto and they said the watch was too new and for me to select any Core model. The SS# was the way Suunto tells what model it is.

[Mystro]

Update.

[symantec11_76]

Hello all in the forums as this is my first post. I am a member of many forum communities and must say that this forum is at the top of my list. I really enjoy reading everyone's posts here. I have to give Mystro a thumbs up on his review of the Suunto Core All Black as it helped me in my decision to become a proud Core owner. My first Suunto is a N3i MSN direct watch. Though discontinued, the watch still receives the free MSN services and serves its purpose on my wrist while I'm at work. Since the N3i has served me well, I decided to take a look at the latest watches made by Suunto. I instantly fell in love with the All Black model and began my research. After some Google searching, I was led to this great forum and Mystro's review helped me decide on the Core which is happily residing on my wrist. The Core is functioning flawlessly, and I do not regret the purchase at all.

The only complaints I have is the shiny black bezel, and the barely glowing tick marks around the screen. The image of the All Black core on the Suunto website shows the bezel to be a flatter black matching the tone of the strap. I would have preferred this stealth black color better but the function outweighs my disappointment. The other complaint is that the Suunto website image shows the tick marks at every 30 degrees glowing brightly like the bezel tick mark. I put the watch under a UV light for a short time and noticed that the tick marks do slightly glow, but very little. Brightly glowing tick marks would have added a nice cool factor and increased functionality at night. But again, I am extremely happy with the watch and can live with these disappointments. I feel that the negative display is perfectly readable and that the backlight has just the right amount of light without blinding me. I ordered the screen protector made by Invisibleshield and will be posting some images of the watch with the screen protector shortly in another thread. Those are my thoughts and thank you again Mystro.

[Mystro]

Congrats on the new Suunto. Welcome to the dark side of the Core. Its nice to hear success stories about the Core. Are you going to put a screen saver on the Core? It has a glass crystal and is very scratch resistant on its own.

The pictures do exaggerate the markings luminescence.

[Jeff_C]

Welcome to the forum!

[symantec11_76]

Thanks for the congrats. I did a write up and added pictures of my Core with the Invisibleshield installed in a different thread. Here is the link to that thread if you get curious.

invisible shield by zagg

I am sure the glass crystal is fairly scratch resistant as is, but the added protection from the screen protector will help out if I mistakenly rub up against a rock outdoors.